Code Midnight
by Volcanostar-kun
Summary: Billy has been re-awakened, as a harbringer of destruction for the dark forces that rule the Upside Down. The people of Hawkins lie in wait, not knowing the horror that is about to fall upon them. While Steve Harrington meets a mysterious man who tells him about his true destiny, Lucas discovers a dark secret that Mike's family has been keeping...one that will change Hawkins foreve


Wind whistled through the putrid forests of the Upside Down, sounding like the despairing screams of soldiers being cut down in a fetid bog choked with the rotten corpses of their comrades. Five figures were walking through the trees, the wind whipping at their black cloaks making them seem like swirling clouds of smoke. They made no sound as they walked through the forest, but with each footstep, the forest seemed to tremble. A Demogorgon screamed and fled as the shadowy figures passed him. Even they had learned to fear The Beings.

Between the five was a dead body being carried by them, also wrapped in black. The group processed through the forest as in a funeral procession...an ironic image to be sure, considering that the one they were bearing was not going to be laid to rest, but brought into an ascended form of life. The five figures spoke not a word to each other, but moved as if in silent meditation. Their minds were full of chaotic thoughts...thoughts of the world outside the Upside Down, the world that had cast them out. But vengeance was coming, and pain was at hand.

Red lighting crashed overhead, briefly illuminating the pale faces of the cloaked figures. They bore on their wrists numbers...One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. The numbers that Hawkins Lab had tried to scrub from existence. Oh, they had tried. But weapons meant to kill humans could not kill those who were more.

Suddenly, the forest ended and the cloaked five stood at the end of a sheer cliff. There was a humungous crater before them, ten miles in diameter and so deep they couldn't even see the bottom, with waterfalls crashing down on all sides, disappearing into the abyss. In the centre of the crater was a floating island, bathed in the sickly green light of the Upside Down's moon like a spotlight.

The Shadow Beast itself sat on the island, resting it's head at the foot of the Diamond Throne as if it was nothing more than a dog. A man sat on the throne, his eyes closed. The man was youthful, with long hair that carried a ghostly white sheen. He wore a black leather trenchcoat with spiked shoulder pads...spikes, taken from the teeth of Demogorgons. Covering half his pale face was a strange black organic-looking mask...as if the Upside Down itself was fusing with him. Lightning crashed, bathing the dark king in red. The cloaked figures knelt. They were in the presence of their god.

The dark king opened his eyes. They were an angry red...the red of blood, and hatred, and utter chaos. He rose from the Diamond Throne, causing the Shadow Beast to slightly raise his head. Then he placed his hands behind his back and slowly floated from the floating island, over the abyss, towards his followers.

Ritualistically, the five drew back the covering on the body. Long, shaggy blonde hair, blood staining his scruffy face...it was Billy. A smile crept upon the dark king's face, a smile that looked like ice shattering. From his coat he drew a pure black dagger. The red lightning crashed again, shining crimson light upon his wrist and the number inscribed upon it.

Zero. The original test subject...the one of whom not even a single record remained...the one who had surpassed them all.

The black robed figure held Billy's body forth as Zero slowly floated towards it, his cold, blood-chilling smile still on his face. Then he spoke.

"Soon all will return to zero." he said in his calm, cold voice. "Soon all will face our wrath, and experience True Eternity."

The robed figures held Billy's arm forth. With the point of his dagger, Zero carved the number "12" into Billy's wrist.

Billy's eyes shot open. Lightning crashed. The End was beginning.

* * *

Steve Harrington was, it was safe to say, ridiculously bored. Sure, his new job at the video store made him some good cash, but his luck with the ladies was as bad as ever. Yeah, he got the occasional girl flirting with him at the check-out, but they were lame, shallow girls, nowhere near the level of Nancy Wheeler. The store being currently empty, Steve allowed himself a sigh as he sat down at the counter and brushed back his styled hair.

After a summer spent fighting the Russians, things just seemed mundane. Now that he was out of High School, he couldn't even play sports. The reign of King Steve was over. No way he could stand out and look cool now. He was just another guy. He'd probably be working at this stupid store his entire life.

"Come on, Steve, be positive." Steve urged himself. Maybe he'd get lucky. Maybe he'd win the lottery, or end up running into some hot actress on the streets, or something. Yeah, that would be sweet.

Steve heard a car pull up beside the store, and he opened his eyes to look up. To his surprise, it was a limousine.

"_Cool, somebody rich." _Steve thought. Maybe he'd buy a lot of really expensive movies. The more money Steve had, the more luck he was bound to get. That was the way life worked, right?

The owner of the limousine proved to be an old man dressed in a suit. The man opened the door and went right to the counter.

"Bonjour." he said in a thick French accent. "Are you...by any chance, Steven Harrington?"

"Yeah, that's my name." Steve said, confused. He felt a little worried. Why was this man talking to him? Had something happened to his parents?

"Very good!" the French man exclaimed, smiling.

"W...what do you mean?" Steve inquired. What would this wealthy man want with him?

"Steven..." the man said, leaning in closer, "Have you been watching the news recently?"

"Uh...yeah." Steve lied. He _sort _of had been, but it had only been the sports news. He didn't care about politics, or wars, or the latest scientific discovery. What was going on on the other side of the world had nothing to do with him.

"Ah, so I assume you are aware of the situation in France?" the old man asked.

"Uh...no." Steve replied dumbly. Why would he know anything about France?

The man seemed a bit upset by the answer, but nevertheless explained it. "The French government is going through some huge changes." he explained. "They are planning to re-establish the monarchy...and they don't plan to make it like England, where the monarch is just a ceremonial role. Things are going back to the old ways. The new king of France will have complete control over the entire government."

Steve hadn't been following any of that. He knew that the old man had said something about kings, but he still didn't get it. "Uhhh...and that effects me, how?"

"We have traced the royal lines, Steven." the man explained calmly. "The answer is obvious. You are the heir to the throne, Steve. Within six months, we expect you to take up the throne of France. And no, you can not refuse this offer. France wants a king so badly, and they want it to be the actual heir to the throne, that they will enter into war with United States if you refuse."

Steve didn't know what to think. Him, ruling a country? He didn't know a thing about politics. If he was a king, though, that would mean he'd probably have to marry a princess, and, while he had kept this secret from his friends at school, he had always dreamed of marrying one. When he had been little his mom had read him the fairy tales about the farm boys who slayed dragons and won the princess' hand, and had always thought that the princesses sounded like the most beautiful girls. That was why he had liked Nancy so much...to him, she was a princess.

Steve was overwhelmed. "You mean, I, like, actually get to be King Steve?" he said dumbly.

"No." the old man shook his head. "You will be King Steven I, of the House of Harrington."

* * *

"All right, I, uh, fireball the orc." Mike said, rolling his dice to determine the power of his attack. Will had returned for a visit and him and the rest of his friends had decided to celebrate with a DnD session. Of course, that also meant Eleven was back, and that had been something he'd been looking forward to. Unfortunately, Eleven had become kind of a punk and was being a bit distant from him.

"Uhhh...can we stop now?" Eleven complained as she lounged on the couch. "I want to go smoke."

"El!" Will shouted angrily. "Mom says you're not allowed to smoke!"

"Well she's stupid!" Eleven yelled back. Max rolled her eyes. Mike sighed. Hopefully hanging out with them again would get Eleven back to her old self. If not, his life was officially a tragedy.

"Ohhh...tough luck for you, Mike!" Dustin laughed, looking at the dice. "You rolled a zero!"

"Great, we're in trouble now!" Mike exclaimed. Will suddenly winced in pain, causing Mike to look up in concern.

"Will, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Oh...I don't know." Will said, rubbing the back of his neck. "As soon as Dustin said "zero" I got a feeling like when I sense the Mind Flayer, only a billion times stronger."

"One Billion?" Dustin exclaimed. "Dude, you sure you're not dead?"

"For a second, I think I was." Will replied seriously. "I think the feeling was so strong it put me in a state equivalent to death for one second, but it wasn't real death so that's why I'm still alive."

Mike felt his blood run cold. He'd hoped to be done with the Upside Down and finally focus his life on romantic relationships...but it seemed like neither of his two wishes were about to come true. "We have to talk to Mr. Clarke about this." he said. "He might know what's going on."

"No." Will protested. "I want to have one day, where we have fun with each other. We can worry about that later! Come on, let's continue the game."

Will began to describe the orc's actions, as the orc cut down Mike's character with his jagged sword. Lucas moved in closer to Mike. "Mike." he whispered. "If something is one billion times stronger than the mind flayer, how strong would it be?"

"I have a good analogy." Dustin spoke up. "You know that show I've started to watch, Dragon Ball Z?"

"Yeah, I like that one." Lucas nodded.

"Well, think Freeza, but stronger. Like, Freeza would be to this guy what the random farmer from episode one would be to Freeza."

"No way..." Lucas exclaimed, his eyes widening. Forget Hawkins...the whole galaxy could be in danger. If this was true, that would really, really suck. "I need a drink of water." he announced, standing up.

"We'll wait for you, Lucas." Will said.

Lucas climbed the stairs from the basement and made his way into the main part of the house. He saw Mr. Wheeler at the door, welcoming in a large group of men who all seemed to be of Italian descent and were wearing suits and fedoras.

"Ah, welcome, welcome, signors." Mr. Wheeler said to the Italian men. "I'm so pleased to be able to discuss the shipment of the drugs with you on this fine day."

"Ah, yes indeed, Signor Wheeler." one of the Italian men said. "Don Alberto tells me that your company is the finest front company for our organization."

Lucas slowly retraced his steps as the men made their way into the living room, and went back down into the basement.

"What, not thirsty, Lucas?" Dustin asked.

"N...no." Lucas said. His mind was still whirling from what he had heard. Mr. Wheeler had seemed to be a pretty boring guy. In all the years he'd known Mike, he'd only ever seen him reading the newspaper or sleeping. "Mike, I think your dad is part of the mafia."

"No way!" Mike exclaimed. "My Dad runs a shipping company."

"Yeah, and what he ships is drugs!" Lucas shouted. "Mike, it's a front for the Italian mafia!"

Mike sighed and turned to Will. "I knew we shouldn't have played the prohibition-era campaign, Will. Lucas has gangsters on the mind."

"Listen, Mike, I'll prove it to you!" Lucas shouted. He stormed back upstairs, the stairs creaking under his feet.

Admittedly, Lucas had recently been jealous of his sister. Last summer, she'd been like a character in a spy movie. This was his chance to do the same. He'd bring down a huge smuggling operation and land tons of top gangsters in jail. If only Hopper was still around...

Mr. Wheeler and the gangsters were in the living room. One of the gangsters was telling a story. "And then, I tells Enrico...you don't take one step onto my terf, or I shoot you with my tommy gun. And then, he starts being all cocky like that, so I shoot, and his blood flies all over the place."

Mr. Wheeler burst out laughing. "That reminds me of my youth!" he explained. "Boy, I love to kill."

"That you do, Ted." another gangster laughed. "There's a reason why the Don calls you the "Blood-Stained Berserker."

Lucas moved closer. He took out his notepad and began to jot down notes of what they were saying. This was all important evidence.

"Now, everybody, let's discuss the huge heist we're going to do." one of the gangsters said. "This heist is so important, I'm going to whisper it so that none of the kids in the basement hear."

Lucas edged even closer. He _had _to hear this. This was the mafia's top-secret plan...the most important part he needed to learn. All the gangsters and Mr. Wheeler put there heads together and started to whisper. Lucas went so close, he was practically in the living room.

"Hey, we got a spy!" one of the gangsters said.

Lucas' heart stopped. All the gangsters sat up and looked directly at him. Lucas didn't know what to do. Should he run? Should he try to pretend he didn't hear anything? Should he...

"Stand back, boys, I'll handle this." Mr. Wheeler said. Then, from his pocket...he drew a gun.

_Bang! Bang! Bang! _Bullets thudded into Lucas' body, blood splattering from the wounds onto the wall. Mr. Wheeler put the gun to his lips and blew smoke away from the barrel. "Oooh...that was a delicious kill." he said, putting his gun away. "Now let's get back to business."

As Lucas lay dying in the hallway, thoughts flashed through his mind. "_I...I'm sorry I never got to say I love you, Max. And...and Mike, Will, Dustin...please avenge me."_


End file.
